Daniel Beaty: "Emergency"

Daniel Beaty is an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and composer. Last season he had an extended off-Broadway run of his acclaimed solo play THROUGH THE NIGHT produced by Daryl Roth. For this production Daniel received 2011 Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations. For THROUGH THE NIGHT, Daniel also received the 2010 AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and the 2010 Ovation Award for Best Male Lead Actor. His critically acclaimed solo play Emergence-See! ran off-Broadway to a sold-out, extended run at The Public Theater in the fall of 2006. For this production, he received the 2007 Obie Award for Excellence in Off-Broadway Theater for Writing & Performing and the 2007 AUDELCO Award for Solo Performance.

Emergency: Present Day. A slave ship emerges in front of the Statue of Liberty sending NYC into a whirlwind of emotion and exploration in this explosive solo tour de force featuring slam poetry, multi-character transformation, and song. Award winning artist Daniel Beaty portrays a cast of 40 characters including a homeless man, a scientist, a republican business executive, a street vendor, and an 11-year old boy from the projects who all respond to the unexpected phenomenon. A slam poet named Rodney is scheduled to perform in a poetry slam that evening, but is delayed by having to retrieve his schizophrenic father from the site of the emergence. While Rodney and his brother go to see about their dad, the audience is treated to the poetry slam already in progress. Through the characters’ individual responses to this surreal happening and their varied testimonies on identity and personal freedom, Emergency weaves a stirring commentary on what it is to be human and the longing to be free. This play is the recipient of an Obie Award for Writing & Performance as well as numerous other awards.

Presented by the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, McIntire School of Commerce, the Office of the Dean of Students, and the School of Nursing